Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1831-08-08
Morning pleasant though Easterly Winds have prevailed all along for some time. I went to the Office and was busy as usual in writing. Copied a large portion of the Bible letters. They certainly lean to the doctrines of the stricter sects and I do not wonder at their consequent desire to have them published. My father came into town and called at my Office for a few moments. He is one upon a Committee of the ΦBK Society about their secrets. He showed me an Anonymous letter about this business of the Pamphlet which is curious enough to be sure.1 Returned home to dinner.
My father and Mr. Brooks dined with us, and we had quite a pleasant time. They left us and my Mother who has been spending a week quite pleasantly here. I had little of the afternoon left and devoted it to making out a Catalogue of my Pamphlets, of which I can make very little use without one.2 And on the whole, I have a pretty valuable collection.
In the Evening Mrs. Saml. Dexter called to see my Mother. She sat half an hour and immediately upon her leaving, Judge Hall came in. He is a little prosaic but very well meaning. Continued my Pamphlet Catalogue in the Evening and read the Spectator.
JQA notes that the letter was signed James Shadel and that in it the writer said he “would call in the course of the day.” The letter’s purport was “an argu-108ment threatening and persuading me to pay for suppressing the pamphlet.” On his return to Quincy he was visited by one Joshua Colburn who informed him that the Jackson and Masonic forces planned to distribute thousands of copies over the country to injure JQA’s chances for the Antimasonic nomination for the Presidency. Colburn also divulged particulars about the publication of the pamphlet. JQA records his refusal to pay anything to suppress and his conviction that the Jackson-men, David Henshaw, collector of customs, and Nathaniel Greene, postmaster, “are at the bottom of this as they were of the Cunningham Correspondence. Their sting is now invenomed by the fear of losing their places. There is also Masonic Charity in the Cup” (JQA, Diary, 8 Aug.).
A catalogue of CFA’s pamphlet collection in his handwriting, containing publications dated as late as 1833, perhaps a continuation or revision of the catalogue here mentioned, is in Adams Papers (Microfilms, Reel No. 326).